Jeff Morganteen, Staff Writer

Updated 10:10 pm, Monday, August 1, 2011

STAMFORD -- The alleged drug dealer who killed a Norwalk man during a double homicide last September pleaded not guilty Monday to weapons charges alleging that he gave a pistol used in the shooting to his 19-year-old cousin.

Several months after the shooting, prosecutors declined to charge Kendrick with murder or manslaughter in the case, saying they lacked evidence. Kendrick's attorney argued that he shot Patterson in self-defense.

Kendrick is facing misdemeanor charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and interfering with an officer, and a felony count of illegal transfer of a firearm, for allegedly giving the weapon to his cousin.

His attorney, Mark Sherman, asked the court on Monday to put the case on a list of upcoming trials. Kendrick was charged with the new counts on July 1.

"Our position has been that Jason acted in self-defense and did not commit any crimes that day," Sherman said.

The arrest warrant affidavit on Kendrick's charges says Stamford police investigators determined that Patterson had not shot at Kendrick, and that Kendrick never claimed he had been shot at.

According to the affidavit, Kendrick was at his back porch with his brother and mother while several other Southwood Square residents hosted a barbecue in the West Side housing complex. At one point, he heard a gunshot, followed by several more. He saw Wilks run up a pathway followed by a man wearing a red hat and shirt, later determined to be Patterson.

Kendrick told police that as Patterson began walking toward him he saw a handgun in his hand. Kendrick said he was "scared for his life." He took his Glock handgun and pulled the trigger seven or eight times, until Patterson fell, police said.

Kendrick gave his legally registered Glock to his cousin on the same night, court records said. His cousin was 19, too young to legally possess a firearm, the warrant said.

Kendrick was arrested shortly after the fatal shootings on an unrelated warrant charging him with several counts of selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer, and Stamford police investigators quickly called him a potential suspect in the September killings. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond on those drug charges.

He was held on an additional $100,000 bond on the new charges.

Staff writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or 203-964-2215.